Sony has been fined £250,000 by ICO, a data protection watchdog, for a security breach that the company’s PlayStation arm suffered in April 2011. The breach saw Sony close down it’s PlayStaton and Sony Online Entertainment Network for weeks whilst the company scrambled to find out if data had been taken, and if so, how much had been taken. Sony found out that personal details of its users had been taken in the breach, including credit card details.

The £250,000 fine is the maximum the ICO can put on a company, and is the third largest fine in it’s history. Since then, Sony has confirmed that the breach in credit card details did not appear to have resulted in any credit card fraud, and as such should not be fined such an excessive amount. As such, Sony will be appealing against the decision, although this is standard practice for every company when dealing with legal issues.